Agenda and minutes

None received.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None.

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting held on 8^th June 2016 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

Donna Talbot, Head of Business Intelligence, attended and presented a report setting out details of corporate performance monitoring for the 4^th Quarter of 2015/16 (January to March).

An overview of the Quarter 4 (Q4) budget position was provided at Appendix 'A' so performance could be viewed within the associated financial context.

It was noted that the latest Ofsted Post Inspection update was provided at Appendix 'B' and updates would continue to feature in these reports going forward.

It was reported that regular corporate monitoring of performance across the authority is continuing, with the production of quarterly reports and analysis of corporate performance. Quarterly Quality of Service reports against the themes of Start Well, Live Well and Age Well have been produced for Q4 2015/16, giving an overview of performance against agreed headings and parameters.

The key highlights were noted and included:

Start Well

·  The Child Protection Plan (CPP) rate per 10,000 and the Children Looked After (CLA) rate per 10,000, had both increased from Q3. The number of Lancashire children on a CPP was 1443 and the number of CLA was 1691 at the end of March 2016, largely due to increased risk averse practice since the Ofsted inspection outcome. A risk sensible model is being introduced to ensure the correct interventions.

·  It takes longer in Lancashire for children to be matched with an adoptive family, from 272 days (2011-14) to 279 (2012-15). The aim was to achieve good adoptive matches to ensure that the breakdown rate was lower.

·  During 2014/15, 71 out of 498 of pupils with special educational needs and disability achieved 5 A* to C grades at GCSE including English and maths, higher than the national average (8.8%), regional (8.7%) and statistical neighbour (8.4%) averages.

It was agreed to provide figures for the number of children matched with an adoptive family quickly and to consider a further performance indicator regarding breakdown rates following adoption.

Live Well

·  Members expressed their concern regarding the rise in the numbers of children (aged 0-15) killed or seriously injured (KSIs), which had increased from 69 in Quarter 3 to 88 in Quarter 4. It was reported that Lancashire's Safer Travel Team provided interventions to address child casualties and schools, in those districts which have shown an increase during 2015, have been proactively targeted for educational activities.

·  Safer Travel Team officers are working with Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety to map current road safety interventions across Lancashire and a new Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety Co-ordinator has been appointed to direct activities of all partners and target resources to more effectively reduce casualties.

It was agreed that further information would be provided regarding KSIs, particularly concerning time of day/year that the child KSIs occur.

Members agreed that the new Partnership Road Safety Strategy should be included on the agenda of a future meeting of the Cabinet Committee.

Age Well

·  Results from the 2015/16 Adults Social Care Survey had maintained the high standards achieved last year. There was positive feedback from service users  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Kate Lee, Head of Exchequer Services attended and presented a report on Debt Management.

The outstanding debt position as at 31^st March 2016 was outlined and it was noted that the levels of outstanding debt continue to be high, with particular difficulties in collecting debts over 6 months old and a high number of debtors who recurrently do not pay their debts, particularly on Adult Social Care despite being chased by Debt Management.

An update was presented on a significant amount of work that has been undertaken over the last 12 months to put in place process, IT systems and policies that aim to increase the debt recovery rates over the next 12 months.

Members noted the main points:

·  The Corporate Income and Debt Management Policy, Processes and Responsibilities was reviewed in October 2015 and revisions approved by the Deputy Leader in March 2016. The new policy states that when all other debt recovery options have been exhausted, a referral is made to Legal Services, as it is acknowledged that those debtors contained within the care debt category could comprise vulnerable service users and a high degree of sensitivity surrounding the debtor. As a final resort a referral would be made to a Debt Collection Agency, again following a review process assessing the sensitivity and vulnerability of the debtor.

·  The non-residential charging policy is being revised to link to the revised Income and Debt Management Policy, Processes and Responsibilities and also changes are required in order to achieve increased income for the County Council as part of the budget savings programme, subject to consultation and Member approval.

·  The new Accounts Receivable System went live in July 2017, providing an automated solution for sending out reminders, statements and letters. The System is working well, providing the debt management Team with improved performance management information that allows the manager to see outstanding debts and individual collector performance.

·  All clients were encouraged to sign up to a direct debit mandate to ensure that care debt could be collected promptly. Lancashire's direct debit take up rate was above average for local authorities at circa 50%. Approaches were being looked at to increase the take up rate to nearer 90%, currently achieved by some local authorities.

·  The County Council's Legal Services team is undertaking a vital role in the recovery of debts. The revised Debt Management Policy contains options to take outstanding debts to court which will increase the number of cases Legal Services are involved in.

Resolved: - That the report now presented be noted.

Deborah Barrow, Head of Human Resources attended and presented the Corporate Human Resources Health Check report for the year 2015/16.

It was reported that the Corporate Human Resources key metrics regularly monitor and report against workforce data including sickness absence; the numbers of starters and leavers; reasons for leaving; redeployment activity; vacancy numbers and recruitment costs.

The data highlights for the year 2015/16 were reported as:

·  The number of FTE days lost per employee due to sickness was 10.7, compared to 10.5 in 2014/15, with the top three reasons for absence being mental health (23%), medical/dental/hospital (21%) and musculoskeletal (11%).

·  The number of starters decreased by 13.9% in 2015/16 compared with 2014/15.

·  The number of leavers was up by 21.2% in 2015/16 compared with 2014/15, with the main reasons for leaving being voluntary resignation, voluntary redundancy and end of fixed term contract.

·  Turnover increased from 11% in 2014/15 to 14% in 2015/16.

·  The number of recruitment adverts decreased by 29.7% in 2015/16 compared with 2014/15.

Members noted that information regarding the new starts onto all employment programmes was provided separately within the Corporate Performance report.

Resolved: - That the report now presented be noted.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

None.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Performance Improvement will be held on Monday 12 September 2016 at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room B – The Diamond Jubilee Room.

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Monday 12^th September 2016 at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room B – the Diamond Jubilee Room.

Notice is hereby given in accordance with Regulations 5(4) and 6 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 that this meeting is likely to move into private session to consider the item listed as Update Report on the Performance of Lancashire County Council's Waste Management Company.

Resolved: - That the Notice of Intention to Conduct Business in Private be noted.

The Committee is asked to consider, whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act, 1972 as indicated against the heading to the items, and that in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Resolved: - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 and that in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Steve Scott, Head of Waste Management attended and presented an update on the performance of Lancashire County Council's Waste Management Company.

Resolved: - That the report now presented be noted.